Referees are routinely criticized for having poor eyesight, lacking fitness and getting decisions wrong, but FIFA medical experts want whistlers tested for performance-enhancing drugs. Top class and international match officials are already subject to stringent fitness tests and while there was no indication doping was an issue, delegates at FIFA's medical congress were told Thursday referees could come under the same kind of doping scrutiny as players. “We have to consider referees as part of the game,” FIFA's chief medical officer Jiri Dvorak told delegates on the second day of the FIFA medical conference in Budapest. “We have started to discuss this and this is something for the future which will be discussed to include possibly an anti-doping programme for referees. “We do not have an indication that this is a problem but this is something we have to look at. The referees are a neglected population.” Michel D'Hooghe, the long-standing chairman of FIFA's medical committee, added: “The referee is an athlete on the field so I think he should be subjected to the same rules.” Howard Webb, who refereed the 2010 World Cup final, said any measures to show soccer was free of drugs was fine by referees. “I don't think it's an issue for any of us because we are not in competition as such,” said Webb. “If it is something FIFA want to do we are fine with that. If it shows that everyone involved in the game is absolutely clean, that is how it should be.” David Howman, the World Anti-Doping Agency's director general, also told the conference that rules might change to allow players from team sports who are banned for doping offenses to return to training, though not playing, earlier. “We are looking for ideas on how reductions and early return to training can be done,” he said. D'Hooghe added that players in team sports were hit harder by drugs bans than individual athletes, who are still able to train and return fit to competition when their bans end. Mismanagement allegations Jack Warner and Chuck Blazer, the former president and general secretary of the CONCACAF confederation, were guilty of financial mismanagement on a grand scale during their years in office, delegates were told at their congress Wednesday. New CONCACAF President Jeffrey Webb said he was “shell-shocked, dismayed and mad” as the organization's auditor John Collins unveiled details of the alleged mismanagement to members from the 40 countries of North and Central America and the Caribbean, which make up the confederation. Collins told delegates that after investigating CONCACAF's finances for the last five months, he could state that under Blazer it failed to declare revenue to the United States Internal Revenue Service for years. Warner registered a $22.5 million FIFA-funded soccer center in Trinidad to his own name. While Warner left FIFA in disgrace last year, Blazer is still CONCACAF's representative on FIFA's executive committee and a heated debate, sparked by a motion from the Bermuda delegate, ended with the Congress voting that he should be removed from FIFA's executive. That decision is not binding on FIFA because only the world governing body can remove an official from the executive.
